Thursday, September 5, 2013

You Can't Win'em All in Las Vegas

Explanation: Las Vegas (finally) installed pedestrian bridges over the major streets on the Stip after 1,600 people a year were hit by cars. There are escalators up to them and down from them.

# 1 We'd decided to go to Olives, the Bellagio, for a light early dinner; we hadn't had lunch, just breakfast.

We'd walked across the bridge and I was just turning right to take the down escalator when a man came barreling around the corner, head down, texting furiously and slammed his right shoulder into my right eye. The blow was hard enough to snap my jaw shut and I distinctly heard the "click" when my teeth met.

"OW!" I said indignantly while others asked if I was okay and others called "Hey!" after the offender. He finally responded some 10 steps away from me -- still texting -- and yelled over his shoulder, "Sorry!" I yelled back sarcasticly, "Hey - what's a black eye?"

I brushed aside the fussing and clucking among our group and on we went to Olives. The blow didn't leave a mark until the next morning when I found a dime-sized purple mark on my cheek. My titanium-framed glasses had saved me from worse.

#2 Despite the fact that the restaurant was a sea of empty tables with only three people at the bar, we were turned away from the place. "You don't have a reservation," we were told rather loftily. Sensing that begging would do any good after a bit of groveling, we walked away.

Bellagio has 10 or more restaurents, but had objections to all that we saw. "Too expensive!" "I don't like (fill-in) food."

Finally we came to the Cafe Bellagio in the right hand corner of the Conservatory which did have seating for us. In fact, we were given a big round table/booth in an open "window" overlooking the flowers. Purring contentedly, we perused the menu.

#3 I ordered a Bacon Roll and a Thais salad and a glass of white zinfandel. We all ordered and then, here came the food. The waiter set down a platter of sushi in front of me! Ten little bales of God onloy knows what - I recognized rice, seaweed, tiny little squares of salmon ... surely this wasn't a bacon dish!

I smiled and politely told the waiter it must belong to someone else in our party of six. But he smiled back and said, "No, this is the bacon roll" - searching his mind, he said. "Like a California roll?" Light dawned; I'd misunderstood "roll."

He graciously took it away and brought me the shrimp cocktail I'd ordered as a replacement. It was certainly good, but nevertheless, I was 0 for 3 in Las Vegas.